Baseball: Another Drew attracts anxiety for Red Sox

Sunday

Jun 16, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

It used to be that the Red Sox always wound up with the “other” brother.

The Yankees had Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio; Boston had Dominic, a fine player but not Marilyn Monroe’s husband. The Royals had Hall of Famer George Brett and the Red Sox had Ken, a good hitting pitcher. The Cubs and Braves had future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, and the Sox had Mike, a fine pitching coach. The Yankees had catcher Bill Dickey, in the Hall of Fame; Boston had catcher George Dickey, who was 1 for 34.

That seemed to change with the acquisition of Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox even wound up with his older brother Ramon for a little while, but Pedro was definitely the big brother when it came to things like wins and earned run averages.

Now, the Sox have taken it to a new level with the Brothers Drew.

Neither is very good, but there’s something about a Drew that whoever Boston’s general manager is can’t resist, be it Theo Epstein or Ben Cherington.

OK, J.D. Drew had a couple of respectable seasons with the Red Sox. And, OK, Stephen Drew is a good defensive shortstop. Still, starting with Opening Day of 2010, Boston has committed $37.5 million dollars to the brothers with an aggregate result of a .239 average and 30 home runs.

That’s not much of a return on an investment.

Signing Stephen Drew will never be a mistake like signing J.D. was. Stephen got just a one-year contract, and given that Jose Iglesias was a huge question mark after his terrible offensive performance at the end of 2012, Boston needed some sort of insurance policy at shortstop.

And, Stephen Drew has been a fine defender. Former manager Terry Francona defined good defense as “the ball winding up where it’s supposed to” — Drew has done that consistently.

Can Boston win with Drew at short on an everyday basis, or should he become a spare infield part?

Depending on how important you perceive defense to be, Drew can be part of a winning infield combination. In fact heading into yesterday’s game, Drew, Dustin Pedroia and second and Iglesias at third have combined to commit one (1, uno) measly error in 561 chances. That’s a fielding percentage of .998.

Although the Red Sox seem reluctant to admit it, their best lineup has Drew at shortstop and Iglesias at third. Will Middlebrooks has options left. If Boston can send Alfredo Aceves down, it can send Middlebrooks down.

Stephen Drew won’t be in Boston long enough to create the same unpleasant memories J.D. did. If he can help the Sox get back into the playoffs, then depart in favor of Iglesias, fans will actually remember him fondly.

They just don’t need to see any more Drews in a Boston uniform, wearing No. 7 or not.

Answers:

1. The Hall of Fame outfielder who has hit the most career home runs at Fenway Park off Red Sox pitching, none while playing for the Yankees.

2. The only Red Sox pitcher to throw a shutout against a National League team in regular-season play.

3. He leads the Red Sox in career wins by a pitcher born and raised in Mexico.

Questions below.

Notes from the observation deck:

•Nobody in recent Red Sox memory can make a routine play look spectacular better than Jonny Gomes.

•One of the things managers and pitching coaches worry about with Franklin Morales is that he has such a — what they call — violent delivery. It’s hard to maintain consistency with that many moving parts, and it increases the risk of injury.

•Beginning with their 17-5 win over the Rangers on June 4, the Red Sox played nine games in a total of 32 hours, 38 minutes. For anybody who watched every pitch, that’s 1-1/3 days of your life gone forever.

•The Sox played 12-2/3 innings in Baltimore on Thursday night without drawing a single walk. The last time they played that many innings without a walk was on April 15, 1993, when they beat the Indians in 12-2/3 innings at Fenway, 4-3, on a game-ending double by Jeff Richardson. You remember him, right?

•Not sure why this is, since both are considered to be bad things, but Boston is 12-6 when one of its pitchers hits an opposition batter and 20-13 when one of its batters grounds into a double play.

•The Red Sox are not a team designed to win 2-1 games, as they did at Tampa Bay last week. Since 1988, Boston is 140-663 (.174) when it scores two runs or fewer. However, in that same time frame, the Sox have played 140 games that wound up 2-1. They’ve won 70 of ’em, and lost 70 of ’em.

•So much for the power of positive reinforcement. In a three-day span late last week, Aceves gave up one run in six innings in Boston’s 2-1 victory at Tampa Bay, and got sent down the next day. Jose de la Torre helped save the bullpen by going 3-1/3 fine innings in an 8-3 loss, and got sent down the next day. And Alex Wilson looked sharp finishing up the 13-inning marathon in Baltimore, even though he was stuck with the loss, and got sent down the next day.

Next time they’re in the majors, they should all allow eight runs in two innings and see what happens.

•Daisuke Matsuzaka is with the Indians’ Triple-A team in Columbus. It is minor league déjÀ vu for him. He spent almost two months on the DL, came back to pitch on Tuesday and had to leave the game in the third inning after throwing a pitch that bounced in front of home plate and hit the umpire. In six starts, he is 0-2 with a 3.47 ERA and has walked — it never changes — 18 in 23-1/3 innings.

•Ever wonder how all the other players perceive Pedroia? While the disabled lists are overpopulated with pulls, strains and sore spots caused by babies sleeping on shoulders, Pedroia plays through torn ligaments and hits .325, all the time saying that injuries are part of the job description so shut up and play.

In the minors, righty pitchers Brandon Workman and Anthony Ranaudo are a combined 12-2 at Portland. Workman, a second-round pick in 2010, is 8-2 since being promoted to Double A last year. On Thursday, Ranaudo got the win in a 2-0 victory for the Sea Dogs over Erie. He gave up just two hits and two walks, and struck out 13, in 7-1/3 innings.

And look out, Middlebrooks — the Red Sox promoted Xander Bogaerts from Portland to Triple-A Pawtucket. Bogaerts has been a shortstop but as Jose Iglesias has shown, it’s an easy transition to third base. Bogaerts hit .311 at Portland this year and is a career .316 hitter in Double A including last season.

However, local fans won’t get to Bogaerts close up for a while now. The PawSox are home this afternoon, then hit the road for a long trip and don’t get back to McCoy Stadium until June 26.

Speedy utility man Eric Patterson of the 2010 Sox is with York of the Atlantic League; well-traveled hurler David Pauley, who always seemed to pitch against the Yankees when with Boston, is back in baseball with the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A team in Reno; dangerous pinch hitter Curtis Pride has put in five seasons as head baseball coach at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

Wily Mo Peña, who came to the Red Sox for Bronson Arroyo, is with Fukuoka in the Japanese major leagues; infielder Bill Selby of the ’96 Sox is a coach at Northwest Mississippi Community College; Joe Thurston, a short-timer for Boston in 2008, is playing for Yucatan of the Mexican League.

1. Who is Al Kaline? He hit 62 home runs at Fenway, all for the Tigers.

2. Who is Josh Beckett? He blanked the Braves, 3-0, at Fenway Park on June 20, 2009.

3. Who is Alfredo Aceves? His win at Tampa Bay on Wednesday was his 15th for the Sox, snapping the tie he was in with Vicento Romo, who had 14 wins for Boston.